INDISCRETIONS OF A DIARIST

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 85, 9 January 1928, Page 7

INDISCRETIONS OF A DIARIST

* GREVILLE AND QUEEN VICTORIA Dominion Special Service, London, November 10, 1927. A copyists’s blunder and a piece of careless editing gave the additional volumes of the Greville “Memoirs” a sensational interest which they really did not possess. Greville was not, perhaps, a worshipper ol Queen Victoria, but he did full justice to her great qualities, and he could never have written the rubbish about the Prince Consort’s willingness to poison her with which he was credited in the new addition of that portion of the “Diary” which had been expurgated from the original main work. The reference was actually to the Court of Naples. Queen Victoria herself was scandalised by the “Diary” when it appeared, but that was largely because of the reference to her Royal uncles and to her father. But history will agree with Greville’s tone towards those personages rather than with Queen Victoria’s susceptibilities. Possibly the Queen was hardly conscious herself of the enormous change she wrought in the national life, and to pass from the Courts of George IV and Willima IV to that of Queen Victoria is to pass from one age to another. The more Queen Victoria is studied, the more she stands out as a great Sovereign, whatever her little weaknesses or her prejudices might

have been. Mr. Lytton Strachey, who came to scoff, remained to pray. AH those who were thrown into close association with her became her admirers, and not the least of these is Lord Rosebery. Greville himself, although a somewhat sour observer of men and things, was no mere gossip. He knew everybody in the political world, and in his position as Clerk to the Privy Council he was brought into contact with politicians of all parties, and they were very glad ;to use him as a convenient channel of communication. Possiblv the most striking fact which emerges is William IV’s dislike of the Duchess of Kent, for which he had probably some justification. and his hopes of the youthful Princess Victoria.